Page 80 of The Only Way Is Up

‘It’s something and nothing,’ Daisy shrugged. ‘I’ll talk to Katie about it,’ – she’d bet there were missed calls and messages from her manager when she turned her phone back on – ‘see if it’s worth actively denying Marcus and I had a thing going on. She’ll probably say no; they don’t have any photos or videos to dump later because it never happened, so chances are it will go away on its own.’

Tom sat down next to her, his face full of concern. He hated the fact Daisy looked so grim, that her reality had intruded on theirs. ‘Is this your life? Stuff like this, week after week?’

Daisy gave him a tired smile. ‘Sometimes. The split from Simon was awful, and whenever I’ve dated someone the press Vultures have started circling, which is why I haven’t dated much.’ She put her coffee cup on the table and swung her feet onto Tom’s lap. ‘This last year has been particularly bad.’

‘Do you know why?’ asked Tom.

‘The thing at the NTAs, obviously,’ Daisy continued, closing her eyes as he started to gently rub her feet. ‘But afterwards there were other stories, about me being a drunk, taking medication, having a temper. There was even a story about me throwing a shoe at my dog. I don’t even have a dog.’ Tom snorted. ‘And now all of this. Somebody is definitely making up stories about me. And somebody in Shipton Combe is helping.’

‘What makes you think that?’

‘It’s here.’ Daisy tapped the newspaper and read aloud.

‘According to a source close to the TV star, top of the chat agenda at Daisy’s fortieth birthday party was the new YouTube venture of Daisy’s mother Stella Crawford and her cooking partner, Justin Drummond, who announced that Cook with Justella will soon be featured on ITV’s This Morning.’

She raised her eyebrows at Tom. ‘See? Only people in that room heard Justin mention that, so one of them must have told the press.’

‘Shit, Shipton Combe has a mole.’ Tom looked suddenly alarmed. ‘You know it’s not me, right?’

Daisy laughed. ‘I’d assumed it wasn’t you. It would put quite the dampener on this first date if it were.’

Tom shook his head. ‘But who can it be?’

‘I have my suspicions,’ she waved Tom off, ‘but I can’t think about that today. Right now I need to call Katie, then turn my phone off again so I can take you back to bed. We need to make the most of this room for at least a couple more hours.’

She shot Tom her most seductive smile, then laughed when he almost choked gulping down the rest of his breakfast.

CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE

Since Daisy had spent a decent chunk of Sunday on the phone to Katie, they’d decided to skip their normal Monday morning phone call unless something urgent came up. So when her phone started ringing when she was in the shower at Willow Cottage, she immediately thought it was her manager and felt a frisson of worry. She played out all manner of doom scenarios in her head while she finished washing her hair, wrapped it in a towel and put her bathrobe on before she padded back into the bedroom to return Katie’s call. Daisy sat on the bed and looked at the screen, surprised to see the missed call was from Christian, not Katie. The worry was replaced by a weary heaviness, but on the upside at least he wasn’t hammering on her front door.

Daisy had just made the decision to call him back later when the phone rang again, Christian’s name lighting up the screen in the gloom of the bedroom. It was lashing down with rain outside and the room felt damp and cold. She decided she might as well answer it – she’d been on the receiving end of Christian’s persistence before. Her mind briefly flickered to Tom’s relentless tongue and fingers yesterday morning, but she pushed those thoughts aside. Not a good time.

‘Hey,’ Daisy said, trying not to sigh.

‘Don’t hang up,’ said Christian hurriedly. ‘I need to talk to you.’

Daisy rolled her eyes. ‘First, I’m not a hanging-up kind of person, and second, if I didn’t want to talk to you I wouldn’t have answered the phone in the first place.’

‘Sorry,’ mumbled Christian. ‘I just need to tell you something. About the story in the Mail on Sunday yesterday.’

‘Go on.’ Daisy closed her eyes, lying back on the pillow.

‘All the stories about you since the NTAs, they’ve come from Benny.’

‘Why am I not surprised,’ she sighed. ‘How did you know it was him?’

‘The bit about the Tiffany ring and opening old wounds, I said that to Benny when I told him what had happened. Nobody else could have known that but him.’

‘Right.’ Daisy sat up, her weariness turning to anger. ‘Did he say WHY he’s been making up bullshit stories about me for the last four months?’

‘He and Damien cooked it all up. I think at first it was about trying to protect my career, make me look good with the engagement stuff, but also making you look bad in case things went south with Spotlight. So I didn’t get burned by association, I guess.’

This was just a game to people like Benny – a series of chess moves where sacrifices had to be made in order to claim the win. And Damien, Christian’s agent, was just as bad, if not worse. And Daisy was just meant to sit back and be collateral damage? Not.

‘Then when it was clear Spotlight weren’t going to sack you off, Benny persuaded me to go to Austria to win you back, then sent the photographer to make us look all loved up. He thought it might help get the Wimbledon deal over the line. He’s been hedging his bets the whole time. And now we’ve officially split up, he’s trying to get you fired so he can put one of his other clients in your job.’

‘Of course he is.’ Well, isn’t that just great? ‘I think we can all agree that you picked a brilliant manager, Christian. Well done.’